The Iowa State women’s golf team will take a break from October all the way until February 2, where the Cyclones will travel to Orlando, Florida, to take part in the UCF Challenge. There were certainly ups and downs to it with some high points and low points.

A strong start and a weak finish

One of the most common themes late in the season is how the Cyclones would start out better than they would finish. This happened in the last two matches and it also happened with their rankings in each match.

First, in the Windy City the Cyclones started off very strong, finding themselves in the top three on day one. This did not stick though, and Iowa State fell down the rankings.

After scoring to stay in the top three, at the end of round two the Cyclones slid down all the way to 10th, and could not do any better and ended the match in 10th place. It happened again in the Stanford Intercollegiate. The Cyclones stayed around the middle of the pack at the end of round one but ended the match in 14th place.

This isn’t only common in certain matches. At the Dick McGuire Invitational the Cyclones got 3rd place. Then at the East and West Match Play they got 1st. Then they slid down the rankings. They got 10th at the Windy City and now 14th at Stanford. 

Freshmen step up

Two bright spots so far are the two freshmen on the team, Liyana Durisic and Ruby Chou. Ruby started off as the sixth spot and did not start off very well. As time went on though she steadily got better and better.

At the first two matches she got the worst ranking for the whole team, and she was at least four points off of the next person. Then at the Windy City she shot up to get the fourth-best score.

Liyana Durisic has been impressive so far this season. At the Dick McGuire Invitational she got the fourth-best score, which turned out to be her worst ranking. Then at the Windy City she led the Cyclones in the rankings and was tied for seventh overall.

She got the best score for Iowa State in the next two matches as well. She has been very impressive so far and hopefully she can keep it up. Both of these freshmen have been impressive and have also continued to get better with time.

The rankings are in

The last thing to look at is the ranking of Iowa State overall. Golfstat ranks each college in the NCAA in DI, and the Cyclones have placed fairly well. Iowa State is ranked 38 of of 263 teams.

They are not only in the top 100 but in the top 50 teams. The Cyclones could have been higher if they stayed consistent.

Iowa State also had three players ranked in the top 250 golfers in the NCAA. Those golfers are Liyana Durisic, Taglao Jeeravivitaporn, and Amelia Grohn. Durisic was ranked 105, Jeeravivitaporn ranked 166, and Grohn ranked 234. To have three golfers in the top 250 is a good starting point.